Vulnerable GOPer Breaks With Trump’s Retribution Crusade Against Blue States

‘I Will Challenge Anybody Who Gets in My Way’

My colleagues and I have been tracking the creative ways in which vulnerable Republicans up for reelection in November have been distancing themselves from President Trump in recent weeks, as his approval rating craters — due to his war in Iran and rising gas prices, the ongoing affordability crisis generally, his inhumane immigration crackdown, and the role he’s played in ushering in a new Big Tech oligarchy, among other reasons.

This has taken different forms. Only half of the Republican candidates running for office or up for reelection this fall showed up to his Trumped-up party convention in Dallas earlier this month. Others have edited or scrubbed language from their campaign sites to put some daylight between themselves and Trump’s political toxicity. Others have tried to walk a very narrow line between backing the president’s agenda, while distancing themselves from his most unpopular actions this term. This has taken its most colorful, entertaining form in the data center dance some Republicans are performing.

We’ve got a new example of a vulnerable Republican contorting himself to distance himself from Trump this weekend that also converges on a theme that TPM has been focused on during Trump’s second term, as he weaponizes the executive branch for his own political aims. Condemning Trump’s retribution crusade, both against his perceived political enemies and blue states and municipalities as a whole, has been a regular talking point for Democrats the last two years. You don’t really catch Republicans talking about it — or acknowledging it for that matter. And while Rep. Tom Kean (R-NJ) did not directly criticize the retribution campaign the Trump administration has waged against New Jersey, he distanced himself from it during a debate on Sunday night.

Kean, you may recall, was absent from Congress for months earlier this year as his office cryptically attempted to keep his hospitalization due to depression under wraps. He acknowledged his situation bravely and publicly when he returned to Congress after missing more than 100 votes, and was roundly mocked for his honesty by the far-right, rage baiting congresswoman, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and others.

Kean is facing a tough reelection challenge from Democrat Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot, in a race rating that Cook Political Report recently switched from a “toss up” to “lean Democratic.”

During the debate on Sunday evening, Kean broke with Trump on the Lake America drama, and some key issues, including announcing his opposition to the Trump administration’s plan to open an Immigration and Customs Enforcement immigrant detention center in his district. He also vowed to fight the administration’s blockade on funding for the Gateway rail tunnel project — a $16 billion infrastructure revamp to build a new train rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River and to make repairs to the 100-year-old tunnel that currently connects New Jersey to Manhattan.

In February, the Gateway Development Commission sued the Trump administration for withholding funding for the project, and in June a federal judge permanently blocked the Trump administration from freezing the funding.

But it is all tied to an early-in-Trump-II endeavor by Trump’s Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to punish New York City — and specifically, the Democrats who represent the city’s constituents. Officially, Vought announced in September 2025 that the Trump administration would withhold “roughly $18 billion” in federal funding from New York City for infrastructure projects, claiming “unconstitutional DEI principles” followed by the construction companies completing the projects. Per a Politico report from October 2025:

The Department of Transportation had written New York to inform the state the two projects were under administrative review to determine whether the state was subsidizing infrastructure contracts with taxpayer money based on discriminatory principles, referring to DOT’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program.

However, it was around this time that the government shut down for the first time in Trump’s second term, primarily because Republicans refused to negotiate with Democrats on how to address the unfolding health care crisis spurred by then-expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. It would later become the longest government shutdown in modern history. Trump administration officials quickly found a way to show their cards — revealing that the frozen funds for the project was less about some amorphous use of woke DEI hiring practices and more about punishing Democrats and the people they represent.

“Until USDOT’s quick administrative review is complete, project reimbursements cannot be processed, including a $300 million disbursement for the 2nd Avenue Subway. The remaining federal funding for these projects totals nearly $18 billion,” a Department of Transportation spokesperson told Politico at the time. “Thanks to the Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jefferies shutdown, however, USDOT’s review of New York’s unconstitutional practices will take more time. Without a budget, the Department has been forced to furlough the civil rights staff responsible for conducting this review.”

And so, on Sunday, when he was asked about the funding freeze, Kean did not, of course, get into the Trump administration’s broader retribution assault, but he did try to plow some middle ground in defending the project and breaking with the president.

“I will challenge anybody who gets in my way, including this president,” Kean said.